SAM.gov Registration for Small Business: Step-by-Step (2026)
SAM.gov registration is completely free, straight from the federal government -- no fee at signup, no fee to renew, and no legitimate reason a third party should ever charge you for it. Every business applying for a federal grant, cooperative agreement, or contract needs an active registration, which is built on your Unique Entity ID (UEI), the 12-character code that replaced the old DUNS number on April 4, 2022. Run the checklist below to see exactly what you still need and how many business days it realistically takes.
Updated July 18, 2026 — every step, document requirement, and timeline verified against sam.gov, gsa.gov, login.gov, and GSA's Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov).
SAM.gov Readiness Checklist + Timeline Estimator
Answer what you already have and how you're registering. The checker shows exactly which gaps to close first and a realistic business-day estimate to Active status.
This is a preparation and timing estimate, not a submission -- SAM.gov makes the final validation call. Every item below is free to obtain.
SAM.gov gets you eligible to apply. Your Game Plan tells you which programs to actually apply to. The free GrantCompass report ranks the 660+ programs in our catalog you'd realistically win and gives you a step-by-step plan for each one.
See your grants — free →SAM.gov registration is free and required before any federal award
SAM.gov (System for Award Management) is the federal government's single registry of businesses eligible to receive contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements. Registration costs nothing, is done entirely on sam.gov, and produces two identifiers: your Unique Entity ID (UEI), a 12-character code that replaced the DUNS number on April 4, 2022, and -- for entities registering to do contracting -- a CAGE code assigned automatically for domestic firms.
Before April 2022, businesses had to first obtain a DUNS number from the private company Dun & Bradstreet, then separately register in SAM.gov. GSA eliminated that extra step: since April 4, 2022, the UEI is requested and generated directly inside SAM.gov, with no third-party vendor involved at any point. If your business had an active SAM.gov registration before that date, GSA assigned your UEI automatically and no action was required; every registration since then gets one during the Core Data step of the application itself.
Many of the federal programs across GrantCompass's 665-program catalog -- SBIR/STTR awards, most direct federal grants, and every federal contracting set-aside (HUBZone, 8(a), WOSB, SDVOSB) -- list an active SAM.gov registration as a hard prerequisite before you can even submit. See our top federal small business grants for which programs need it, or our broader how-to-apply guide for where SAM.gov fits into the full application process.
How to register in SAM.gov: 8 steps
Create a login.gov account, start entity registration on SAM.gov, choose your registration purpose, complete Core Data (which validates your UEI), add banking and points-of-contact information, submit a notarized letter if you're a first-time registrant, submit the application, and wait for SAM.gov's review -- typically 7–10 business days for a clean submission.
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1. Create a login.gov account
SAM.gov requires a login.gov account before you can access anything -- it's the identity-verification layer shared across several federal websites. Go to login.gov, create an account with your email, set a password, and add a second authentication method (an authenticator app, security key, or text message). Takes about 10 minutes and is entirely free.
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2. Start entity registration on SAM.gov
Sign in to SAM.gov with your login.gov credentials and select "Register Entity." If you only need a UEI without a full registration (for example, a subcontractor that never applies for federal money directly), SAM.gov also offers a "Get a Unique Entity ID" path that skips the rest of this process -- most grant applicants need the full registration, not just the ID.
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3. Choose your registration purpose
Select "Financial Assistance Awards Only" if you will only ever apply for grants and cooperative agreements, or "All Awards" if you might also bid on federal contracts or pursue a contracting certification. This choice determines whether the Defense Logistics Agency's CAGE code validation applies to you -- see the grants-vs-contracts section below for the full breakdown.
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4. Complete Core Data -- this is where your UEI is validated
Enter your legal business name exactly as it appears on IRS records, your EIN, and your physical address (a P.O. box does not qualify as a principal address). SAM.gov cross-checks this against IRS data and, once it matches, assigns your 12-character UEI automatically -- there is no separate UEI application.
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5. Add banking information for EFT
Enter your bank account and routing number under Financial Information. The federal government disburses grant and contract funds by direct deposit, not paper check, so this section is required for every registration purpose, not just contracts.
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6. Complete Points of Contact and Reps & Certs
Name your Electronic Business point of contact, Government Business point of contact, and any additional roles your entity needs. Then complete the Representations and Certifications section -- a series of federal acquisition and socioeconomic-status questions (business size, ownership, veteran status, and similar) that populate automatically into future applications so you don't re-answer them every time.
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7. Submit a notarized letter -- first-time registrants and entities with no active administrator only
If nobody currently holds the Entity Administrator role for your entity -- true for every brand-new registration -- you must submit an original, notarized letter naming your Entity Administrator before SAM.gov will process the rest of your application. See the dedicated section below for exactly what the letter needs to say and where it goes. If your entity already has an active administrator, skip this step entirely; they approve new administrators directly inside SAM.gov.
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8. Submit and wait for review
Once everything is complete, submit your registration. SAM.gov runs it through automated validation against IRS and (for All Awards) DLA records, and a manual review if anything doesn't match cleanly. SAM.gov's own stated target is up to 10 business days; budget 7–10 for a clean submission and see the timeline section below for the honest real-world range. You'll get an email confirming Active status, and your registration must be renewed at least every 365 days after that.
Entity validation: the documents SAM.gov actually accepts
SAM.gov's entity-validation service needs one authoritative document proving your legal business name and current physical address, dated within the last 5 years -- Articles of Incorporation or Organization, an IRS CP 575 EIN confirmation letter, a recent utility bill, or a business license. A P.O. box is not accepted as a physical address, and any document in a language other than English needs a certified translation attached.
This step trips up more first-time registrants than almost any other: the name and address on your document must match what you type into SAM.gov exactly, not approximately. "ABC Consulting LLC" and "ABC Consulting, LLC" can be read as a mismatch by the automated check and trigger a manual review that adds days to your timeline. Before you start, pull up your IRS EIN letter or formation document and copy the legal name character-for-character.
If the automated match fails, SAM.gov's review team may request additional documentation -- the system tells you in-app how long that review is likely to take once you submit, and the honest expectation is that any back-and-forth adds real days, not hours. Getting the name and address right on the first submission is the single highest-leverage thing you control in the entire process.
The notarized letter: when you actually need one
You need a notarized letter only when there is no one who can approve you as Entity Administrator from inside SAM.gov -- which is every first-time registration for a brand-new entity, plus any existing entity whose sole administrator has left without designating a successor. If your business already has an active administrator, they approve additional administrators online with no notarization required.
This is the fact most out-of-date guides get wrong, because the requirement has changed more than once. It is not, today, a blanket requirement on every SAM.gov transaction -- it's specifically the mechanism SAM.gov uses to establish trust the first time an entity has no verified administrator, since there's no existing account to vouch for the new one online. Per GSA's Federal Service Desk guidance, the letter must: be on your company or organization's letterhead; be signed by an officer with legal authority to bind the entity (president, CEO, or partner); state your entity's Unique Entity ID; and name the new Entity Administrator exactly as it appears on that person's individual SAM.gov user account, including their phone number and email.
Once signed and notarized by a U.S. notary public (entities outside the U.S. can use a U.S. embassy or consulate), scan the letter and attach it to a new ticket at the Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov), selecting SAM.gov as the affected system and the notarized-letter issue type as the category. The new administrator needs their own individual SAM.gov user account already created before FSD can process the request. Many state APEX Accelerators (SBA-funded procurement counseling centers) will review a draft letter for free before you submit it -- worth doing, since a rejected letter restarts the clock.
How long SAM.gov registration really takes
SAM.gov's own stated processing target is up to 10 business days, and 7–10 business days is realistic for a clean, error-free first submission with no notarized letter required. The honest range for a first-time registrant is wider: budget 3–6 weeks if any document mismatch, CAGE discrepancy, or notarized-letter mail delay forces a review round.
| Scenario | Best case | Realistic range |
|---|---|---|
| Renewing/updating, current administrator, no name/address change | 7 business days | 7–10 business days |
| First-time registration, Financial Assistance Awards Only, clean documents | 9 business days | 9–15 business days |
| First-time registration, All Awards, clean documents | 9 business days | 9–15 business days, plus any CAGE-mismatch review round |
| First-time registration with a name/address mismatch or a slow notarized letter | — | 3–6 weeks |
Two things extend the timeline beyond SAM.gov's own target, and both are avoidable. First, a CAGE code mismatch (All Awards registrations only) triggers an email from the CAGE system requesting information -- you generally have a matter of days to respond, and a missed or late response restarts that portion of the review. Second, the notarized letter travels partly by mail: GSA's process calls for the scanned copy to go to the Federal Service Desk for conditional processing, with the signed physical original typically expected to follow -- factor in real mail time if you're not local to a fast courier option. Start your registration the day you decide to apply for a federal grant or contract, never the week of a submission deadline.
"Active in SAM" means something different for grants vs. contracts
SAM.gov registration has two purposes: "Financial Assistance Awards Only," which covers grants and cooperative agreements and skips CAGE code validation, and "All Awards," which covers both contracts and financial assistance and adds a CAGE check against the Defense Logistics Agency. Both produce an "Active" status; the difference is which award types that status makes you eligible for.
If your business will only ever pursue grant funding -- federal, or state and local programs that piggyback on SAM.gov for eligibility checks -- Financial Assistance Awards Only is the simpler path: one fewer validation step means one fewer place a mismatch can stall your review. If there's any realistic chance you'll also bid on a federal contract, or pursue a contracting set-aside certification like HUBZone or 8(a) (both of which require an active SAM.gov registration before SBA will even open your certification application), register under All Awards from the start. Switching purposes later is possible but means re-running validation, so it's worth deciding upfront based on where your business is actually headed, not just where it is today.
Being "Active in SAM" is a prerequisite for federal money, not a certification of anything by itself. Set-aside designations -- HUBZone, 8(a), Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) -- are separate applications you file after your SAM.gov registration is Active, each with its own eligibility test. An active SAM.gov registration gets you into the system; it doesn't rank or qualify you for anything competitively on its own.
Scam red flags: every legitimate step above is free
SAM.gov registration, renewal, updates, and the notarized-letter process are all free directly through the federal government -- there is no fee at any step. The GSA Office of Inspector General has repeatedly issued fraud alerts describing a persistent pattern: a spoofed email, made to look like it's from SAM.gov or the Federal Service Desk using information pulled from your public SAM.gov listing, claims your registration is about to expire or be deleted and demands payment -- documented cases range from a few hundred dollars to $1,500 or more -- to "process" a renewal that costs nothing. The Better Business Bureau has separately warned about third parties charging fees to help with government grant registration generally.
Other red flags: an unsolicited email or text claiming you've already "been awarded" a grant you never applied for; any request for payment via gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency to "unlock" a registration; artificial urgency ("act within 24 hours or lose your registration"); and any sender domain that isn't .gov when the message claims to be from a federal agency. If you're unsure whether a message is real, don't click the link -- go directly to sam.gov or fsd.gov and check your registration status yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Is SAM.gov registration free?
Yes. SAM.gov registration, renewal, and updates are completely free directly through sam.gov -- there is no government fee at any step. Third-party firms that charge to "process" a SAM.gov registration, sometimes $300 to over $1,500, are optional and not required; the GSA Office of Inspector General has repeatedly issued fraud alerts about this exact scam pattern, which typically arrives as a spoofed email claiming your registration is about to expire or be deleted unless you pay immediately.
How long does SAM registration take?
SAM.gov's own stated target is up to 10 business days once you submit a complete registration, and 7-10 business days is the realistic range for a clean, error-free first submission. The honest caveat: many first-time registrants see 3-6 weeks in practice, because a single mismatch between your entity's name or address and IRS records (or, for contractors, a CAGE code discrepancy with the Defense Logistics Agency) triggers a manual review and a Request for Information you must answer, adding days or weeks each round. Start your registration the day you decide to apply for a federal grant, not the week of the deadline.
What is a UEI, and did it replace my DUNS number?
Yes. Effective April 4, 2022, the federal government stopped using the Dun & Bradstreet DUNS number entirely and switched to the Unique Entity ID (UEI), a 12-character alphanumeric code generated and owned by SAM.gov itself, per GSA's official transition notice. Every entity that had an active SAM.gov registration before April 4, 2022 had a UEI assigned automatically; every new registration since then receives one during the Core Data step, with no separate application and no third-party vendor involved.
Do I need a notarized letter to register in SAM.gov?
Only if there is no one who can approve you as Entity Administrator inside SAM.gov itself -- which is true for every first-time registration, since no administrator exists yet for a brand-new entity. If your business already has an active SAM.gov Entity Administrator, that person can approve a new administrator online with no notarized letter required. Per GSA's Federal Service Desk guidance, the letter must be on company letterhead, signed by an officer with legal authority to bind the entity (president, CEO, or partner), state your Unique Entity ID, name the new administrator exactly as it appears on their individual SAM.gov user account, be notarized, and be uploaded to a Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov) ticket -- with the physical original typically required to follow by mail.
Do I have to renew my SAM.gov registration every year?
Yes. Every SAM.gov entity registration must be reviewed and renewed at least once every 365 days, even if nothing about your business has changed. If you let it lapse, your status changes from Active to Expired, you become ineligible for new federal contract or grant awards until you re-register, and any set-aside certifications tied to your entity (HUBZone, 8(a), WOSB, SDVOSB) become unusable in the interim. Renewal is free and uses the same account and UEI -- set a calendar reminder 30-45 days before your expiration date.
Do I register differently for grants than for federal contracts?
You choose a registration purpose during signup. "Financial Assistance Awards Only" covers grants and cooperative agreements and skips the Defense Logistics Agency's CAGE code validation step, which applies only to procurement. "All Awards" covers both contracts and financial assistance and includes CAGE validation. If you only ever plan to apply for grants, Financial Assistance Awards Only is simpler and has one fewer validation step that can trigger a delay; if there is any chance you will also bid on a federal contract or pursue a contracting certification like HUBZone or 8(a) (both of which require an active SAM registration as a prerequisite), register under All Awards from the start rather than re-registering later.
Key takeaways
- Registration is always free. No fee to register, renew, or update -- ever. Anyone asking for payment is running a documented scam.
- The UEI replaced the DUNS number on April 4, 2022. It's a 12-character code generated inside SAM.gov, with no separate application.
- Name and address accuracy is the #1 lever you control. A mismatch with IRS records is the most common cause of a delayed first registration.
- The notarized letter is not universal. It only applies when no current Entity Administrator can approve you online -- true for every first-time registration.
- Budget 7–10 business days for a clean submission, 3–6 weeks if anything needs a review round. Start the day you decide to apply, not the week of the deadline.
- Renew every 365 days. An expired registration blocks new federal awards and suspends any set-aside certifications tied to it.
- Check eligibility first. Use the free GrantCompass matcher to see which of the 660+ programs you qualify for.